As the demand for computer system processing capacity grows, partitionable computer systems have emerged as an alternative to providing multiple computer systems to meet this demand. In a partitionable computer system, the computer system's resources are divided into a plurality of separate and independent environments called partitions. Each partition can be configured to support an instance of a specific operating system, along with applications serviced by that operating system.
An application executing within a particular partition of a partitionable computer system may communicate with applications executing on other computer systems via, for example, a computer network. Computer networks enable physically separated computer systems to exchange commands and messages by providing communication links and protocols between the computer systems that facilitate such exchange. The communication links may be direct-wired or wireless, and suitable network protocols, such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), provide structure and organization for these communications.
Because it may be necessary for an application executing in one partition of a partitionable computer system to communicate with another application executing in a different partition of that same computer system, there is a need for a system and method that enables applications in different partitions of a partitionable computer system to communicate with each other. It would be particularly advantageous if these applications could continue to communicate with each other using standard networking application interfaces, as they do when communicating with an application on another computer system, but without the need for an external computer network connection between the partitions. The present invention satisfies this need.